- Sophie de Grouchy and her husband, the Marquis de Condorcet, believed that an educated populace could govern France better than the king could. Do you think that turned out to be true in the short term? What about the long term?
- Love is often dismissed by philosophers, politicians, and historians—and yet, history is filled with examples where love has made all the difference in crucial moments and movements. How does the relationship between the Condorcets illustrate that point?
- Louise “Reine” Audu was a radical, a citizen who believed in bringing down the old world order by any means necessary to force that change, including violence. Do you think there were alternative ways to gain the king’s attention, to re-create the governmental structures, and to redefine the class system without violence? Some believe a radical point of view is what sets a revolution into motion in the first place and that it is paramount to change. How so?
- If your family was starving, or if your government threatened to send its armies against you, what would you do? What price would you pay to protect your loved ones? Would you flee the country for safety, or would you gather, march, and fight with the future in mind as Louise did? Discuss how wealth—or the lack thereof—might influence this answer.
- In Ribbons of Scarlet we see the ambitions and potential of the women at the novel’s center circumscribed by their gender. Tellingly, even the popular revolutionary cry of liberté, egalité was qualified by the third part of the chant: fraternité (brotherhood). In today’s climate of female political activism, are women still viewed more negatively than their male counterparts when they speak up for rights or political changes? What similarities do you see between the treatment of eighteenth-century revolutionary women and women activists today? What progress or differences do you perceive?
- Princess Élisabeth believed deeply in duty, including her duty to Louis XVI as her brother and king. Motivated by these obligations, she gave up several opportunities to flee France—in contrast to her brothers who chose to escape. They went on to gain royal crowns, while Élisabeth lost her head. Was she a fool to surrender her life rather than abandon her brother? Might she have achieved more for her royal dynasty had she fled? Or was Élisabeth’s self-sacrifice for her moral principles laudable?
- Manon Roland is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. How does this experience affect her character and her choices as an adult? How is sexual abuse treated in the eighteenth century as opposed to today?
- The idea of a woman’s proper place is discussed over and over in Ribbons of Scarlet, some women revolting against their assigned roles and some women upholding them. How has the notion of a woman’s role changed throughout the centuries? How have the women changed? What compromises did women of the eighteenth century make to live within those roles? How do they compare to the compromises women of the twenty-first century make?
- At their core, Charlotte and Pauline, polar opposites in almost every way, wanted a better France; however, their beliefs on what “better” meant differed. Why do you think a woman who’d fought real battles would give up so easily, and a woman who’d never seen a day of violence in her life would so willingly die for her cause?
- A theme that runs through the entire novel is the power of words and how they are presented to the world through word of mouth, speeches, political pamphlets, and newspapers. If you were alive during a time when powerful written words were used to manipulate public opinion, how would you be able to discern the truth from falsehoods?
- Émilie de Sainte-Amaranthe seems to have been defined by her beauty. Was she more than just a pretty face? Was her beauty an advantage or a disadvantage? In what ways did Émilie manage to subvert that emphasis on her beauty? What did you think of the juxtaposition of “The Beauty” being set during the Revolution’s ugliest hour?
- At a critical moment in her story, Émilie wonders if her fate would truly be determined by how her appearance made men react and by whom she’d chosen to have sex with. What did you think of her question and her ultimate answer and understanding? How do other women in the book think about sex in relation to their safety, status, and place in society? Did you see any relevance to how modern women deal with these issues today?
